Lee Kiblinger

POETRY

“Dawnsongs” read by Lee Kiblinger.

Dawnsongs

A rooster crows
and I cower
behind the memories
of my own deceit.

For I, too, invite
trios of crows—
the bird’s hackle swells
stretches long
to shake me
and blood-red combs
tilt like hell’s flames
toward the heavens.

Yet the dreaded cries,
these avian warnings,
sound an awakening,
a reminder of refuge,
of the morn and
its mercies—

Now on the steeple
the vane of
the cock’s tail twirls,
catches the dove-breaths,
foretells the winds—

that seasons spin,
and birdsongs
may herald
guilt and grace
in the same breath.

“Rain” read by Lee Kiblinger.

Rain

Genesis 2:6 – but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

You could have dribbled
dew for eternity
to green its grasslands—

Or wrapped a water canopy
around the wide expanse
and tipped—

Sonant sprinkles might
have slipped from
the tongues of angels—

Instead mizzles
bubbled from the bowels
of earth’s lonely face

Softening, wetting
the sapped scapes
of time’s birth—

Until you bid man
to irrigate your
wet artistry

And he bowed, thirsty,
to evaporation—
and a flooded earth.

Lee Kiblinger is a late blooming poet from Tyler, Texas, where she spends her time reading, grading essays, laughing with three teenagers, and avoiding to-do lists. Her poetry has appeared in Calla Press, Agape Review, and Ekstasis.

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Photo Credit: “Weathervane” by Steve Snodgrass, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.com.